Assassin's Creed Next Generation
by Mr.BossMan5000
Summary: Trained under Connor Kenway, Michael Buford is now the leader of his own team of young blood assassins. Living in St. Louis, when Michael's brother is kidnapped, there's no one who's going to get in his way to save him.


Assassin's Creed: Next Generation

Prologue

Having emotions flowing through your brain, existing in your thoughts, and dictating your every decision can really be a pain sometimes. I suppose you're wondering who I am, sounding like the boy who wishes he were dead all them time. My name is Michael Buford. Today, the calendar would read January 12th if you remembered to cross off the days as they passed. The current year is 1837. One more thing, today happens to also be my 18th birthday, and possibly my last. I'm the leader of a group of eight other master assassins. We're what one would call the good guys. We fight for freedom. We battle the likes of Templar, those who seek to control mankind. As well as an organization by the name of the Red Moon, composed only of former Assassins who had been removed for some reason or another. They seek only the destruction of the Assassins. They aren't exactly allies with Templar either, even though the Templars would like the non-existence of the Assassin's Creed as well. To form attachments, which brings on emotions, is typically a wrong choice in the life I lead. For an easy example, if I had no emotions, then I wouldn't have cared when the Red Moons kidnapped my brother. I could have continued my day. But it wasn't like that. I was going to get him back. I did accomplish my self-assigned mission after all. I managed to keep everyone but my own family out of harms way. My father was killed in cold blood. By me, his eldest son. What a birthday present to myself. Just a week ago, the burning passion was too much to ignore.

My senses were all heightened. It was possibly the most stressing time of the day, at least for the three who drew the unlucky shortest three sticks. It was a kind of simple method of choosing who of us had combat training for the morning, but it was easy to follow. Draw sticks, shortest three battle, whoever won their bought from the day before was exempt today. It worked out pretty fairly. Besides the time I had to battle at seven in the morning for 13 days straight. Even today I'm still sure it was rigged. My brother Alexander, our longhaired ginger, Justin, and myself were that unlucky trio this morning. After returning from Jefferson City on for a full-scale liberation from the Red Moons, training was the last thing any of us felt like doing. But it was my own system, so how could I say no? Looking back now, considering I'm head of this team, I could have wavered it for today, but I'm not much of one to hide from my actions, so I went through the early morning fight. Everyone else in our odd family was relaxing. Dae, Jenna, and Lana were being teenagers in their natural environment, the couch. Martrel was drawing some picture. He mentioned something about scourge the hedgehog, how famous a character he'd be some day. It was pretty confusing considering that scourge normally was a negative description to be stuck with. Jösh was over in the kitchen eating cookies. How a math wiz ever became a baker, I still don't understand myself. And of course, leave it to Violet to be sitting in my chair. She was attempting to bother me, but her attempts were fruitless as usual. Not a lot bothered me. I was standing in the middle of our outside training zone. It was better than the inside, because it allowed for us to use the environment in training. So basically more realistic. It was an executive decision by me that banned our guns from training. Training was supposed to be as it sounds, training. Guns gave me more of a, 'kill my teammate' feel. Not like we weren't all dangerous enough with the weapons we carried but guns sort of yelled over kill. I got caught up thinking, something you should never do on the battlefield might I add, about how Martrel, Lana, Alex, Violet, and I were some of the non-enslaved black people in St. Louis. Being in the middle of the nation it was pretty much split. It felt like the north and south could go to war over this any day. I was dragged out of my thought when I heard metal clash with leather behind me. Alex had drawn his sword and swung at my throat. I blocked the swing from behind without looking back, a move I had learned from master Kenway. I turned to face him, because not looking wouldn't work for me all day, and extended my hidden blade to block a shot from his short blade. "Almost had me there, bro. Ya getting better at this everyday." "Are you kidding? I almost killed you. I'm just tired from the Liberation is all." Although he rejected my compliment, it was true. For 10 years old he was doing good. Although to the point of almost killed me was questionable. I looked him in the eye, while our weapons clashed, "I'm still proud of you." He opened his mouth, probably to tell me to stop being such a big brother, but his response was forever delayed. "Enough with this master, apprentice stuff, you guys are gonna take training seriously!" Justin was jumping from the trees above head, warhammer aimed to crush skulls, his girly long orange hair flowing like a comet. Alex lifted his sword to deflect it, but he obviously forgot just how heavy that hammer was. I gave him a silent assist and helped him block using my tomahawk. I played it off as though we had the same thought on coincidence. As soon as his hammer touched ground, I used the hilt as a post, and gave Alex a spin kick, nearly knocking him out of the battle zone. I turned to face Justin, on the assumption I had few seconds before Alex would catch his breath, because I was sure it was knocked out of him. Justin was lunging at me with his hidden blade at the level of my throat. Everyone in this family of mine must have dreams of slitting my throat. I leaned back until my knees hit 90 degrees, and Justin flew right over. Now that was something that was gonna be famous. Using that huge hammer, Justin was more of a mid range type of guy. So he ultimately forgot a close range move. Never turn your back to the enemy. When he turned around, he was introduced to a powerful right uppercut. While he was in the air, he managed to get to my height even though I was a good five or six inches taller than he. He hit the ground hard, and rolled the rest of the way out of the zone. With him out of the way all I had left to do was beat the yellow kid, who held the title of my brother. "Hey guys, rack this one up for Mr. Boss" "Actually, you can rack this one up for Mr. Short." I couldn't understand how he could be so sure of himself against me until I heard tension on a string. I did a 180 to face him. There the tip of his knocked arrow stared me in the eyes. The look on my brother's light skinned face just screamed excitement to the world. "Impressive." I had to give him some respect, he got me good. He lowered his bow, and set the arrow back into the quiver with the others. After strapping his bow back onto his back, he ran over to our point wall. This area of the HQ was dedicated to keeping track of training wins. It was as evenly divided into nine subsections. After pulling out his hidden blade, which was also a knife, he carved a 15th tally under the section labeled: Mr. Short. "Heh I'm catching up to your..." He paused to count the markings under my section. The rest of his sentence came out of his mouth pretty slowly "...your one hundred and thirty three. You know what, forget you!" I laughed for a few seconds. I never really kept track myself, I just added marks to the bottom, and so it was pretty funny to see his frustration. "Alright well go get everyone ready for report. 5 minutes." He ran and jumped off a wall and climbed up to the next floor.

Our team's full time home/HQ was clearly homemade. The only way to travel from one room to the next was free running. The idea also belonged to me. I sat around for 5 minutes thinking of how we all got with the names we had. Some of us kept our birth name. I sure wasn't gonna change mine. However I also wasn't going to strip anyone else of their right to have whatever name they wanted. I had been writing Dae's name as Day for years, because that's how it sounded. Then there was Jösh. He had introduced himself as Josh, but we had told him there were beyond too many Josh's in this world and renamed him Jösh. He didn't object, so that was his name. I don't know why it seemed so much more important to walk in last when giving report, but that's what I did for meetings day in and day out. No one seemed to have a problem with it so I'd just continue as such. When I walked in everyone was there as usual. I was guessing that Lana had something pretty sugary for breakfast because she was hyper. I could see it all in her wide brown eyes. She had seen the cereal. And the milk. And it was a done deal. It wasn't a big deal though, not like she wasn't always talkative anyway, so I pressed on with this oh so typical meeting.

"First off, nice work team on our liberation of Jeff City." The statement brought a small cheer through the room. "It was rather bothersome with the snow and all of the extra details, but a good job nonetheless. Jösh how goes the national clearance total?" The Red Moons had grown to become a national force before their first emerging from the shadows. They'd been causing more problems from the Assassin's Creed than the Templars had for the last three in a half years. Jösh switched from cookie baker, to the fastest calculator in the Assassin's entire arsenal ever. "Nationwide from the reports we've acquired from the other assassins, we current have a total of 72% depletion from their original emergence. At our current rate, by this time next year, they should be nothing but pages in the history books." Jösh knew how to talk like a normal person, well at least as normal as it get's around here, but he chose the nerdier side of the dictionary. I could respect him for it. "Well you heard it for yourselves guys. It means the work we're doing is meaning something. Well let's get started on today's business." "Lana, hang around here and write all the reports to Aurora and the other assassin leaders and send them out on the birds." "Will do." I heard Alex lean over and whisper to Martrel, "I'm telling you he has a thing for that girl." "Yeah probably. He's your brother, so you gotta ask first." I considered revealing things about him. But because it was inaccurate, I steered away from the thought. Moving on, Dae was not only the smartest blonde woman in existence but our house doctor too, so it only made sense that I asked her about our medical stuff. "We're running sort of low, but it doesn't really matter since nobody's hurt." "Well take Jen, and Alex, and you three can probably find some extra stuff in the old Templar warehouse on the southern end of the city." "Alright." The three of them left to their rooms to gather their gear. "Jösh, you and Justin go around town, and collect all of the revenues owed to us for this week" "Right." "Martrel, you can go around the city, and take care of whatever crimes you catch happening. Looks like you got it easy today." "Got it." "Oh, and don't get too hostile. We know how you like to cut off hands just for stealing." "I'm telling you, they won't do it again, if their hand is gone." I dismissed him and the comment hoping he would chose the less vicious path. "Vi, you should come with me. There's this guy who's a supposed ex-red moon. He claims to have important information he'd like to share as retribution for betraying the assassins in the first place. I could use the extra cover." The explanation was a bit of a mouth full as I was looking her in the eyes. She took a moment to respond as if deciding rather or not to help me "Alright, I guess." There was nothing more to be said so I turned and made for my room. We had decided that the rooms would be on the first floor, but unlike the upper rooms would have walls and doors. Privacy and all that in mind. I set my gun in its holster on my right and that was all I needed to prepare. My quiver was full. Sword and tomahawk on either side of me already. Throwing knife belts at ready. Hidden blade gauntlets on my arms. And the pouches with other useful things like rope darts and smoke bombs were topped off. I left my room, and went down the hall to Violet's. I knocked first to avoid an incident. Alex had learned that the hard way walking into Justin's room during his...private time. She responded so softly I almost missed it. I opened the door, and she was setting knives into her last belt. Everything else seemed about ready. My reasons to enter her room were so few and far between I normally took them. The walls were an interesting shade of deep purple. I always silently laughed when I remembered Violet had violet walls. As well she wore black and violet. Over the years I got the sense it was her favorite color. Which always made me wonder if she was really named Violet or chose it for herself although I'd never ask. I wasn't much of one to dig into people's pasts.

When we left out, everyone else was already gone, aside from Lana who was to stay here to complete her job for the day. It was easy to tell, because the others horse's made tracks in the settled snow. We made a pretty casual exit by horseback. HQ was a short six miles to the north of the main city. We had decided that secluded in the woods would do us better for an HQ than right in the center of the town. Although instead of the North gates, we went around to the west gates, simply because the meeting point was on the west side of town. The horses were secured at the stables, before we walked the rest of the way. As we walked, I glanced over at her, and turned my head before she glanced back. We both took a second glance at the same time and our eyes met. She gave a slight smile, and a wave. I decided it wouldn't kill anyone if I smiled back. "Hey, you actually smiled." Violet sounded a little excited to see any show of emotion from my normally cold exterior. "Yeah, it happens every now and then." "You should do it more often." I scratched the back of my head. My hair was thick. Lana would describe it as puffy. But I liked thick. I continued my primarily quiet walk with Violet. She was pretty. What men with less self control would call 'fine' or 'sexy', but I liked pretty. She lifted her hand, and brushed her shiny hair back. I had once read in a female psychology book in the HQ library that the small things women do, for instance brushing back hair, had a secret meaning. I never had time to give the book my full attention. I wondered if she was telling me something that I was missing. I let go of the thought, because the two of us were approaching the area. "Head up top to the roofs and cover me, we're getting close." With a nod of the head, she went around entered an alley, and was gone.

We came close. The selected meeting point was a populated merchant area. As I leaned against the wall, I pulled down my black hood to hide my piercing eyes. My eyes were some of the darkest brown most people had ever seen; yet they lightened up when I became emotional, positively or negatively. I scanned the area not missing any details. I noticed a man in a red hooded cloak seemingly coming my way. When he was within a decent distance for both clear hearing, and personal space, the man began to speak. "Michael, I'm glad you trusted me." His voice was rather high for a man, and unpleasant to the ear. I was about 6 feet, so good 3 inches shorter than I so I was looking down on him in more than one way. "Michael, the Red Moon frowns upon you. Your actions have been very problematic to them." "I would hope as much." "We can't allow you to be a problem anymore." He revealed a knife from the cover of his cloak and went to stab at me. I grabbed his wrist in my left hand, and lifted my right into the air, before forming a fist. He lifted his hand to block a punch. But instead found a throwing knife deep in left eye. He fell to his knees, then the ground, confirming Violet's kill. Four other men took threw down red cloaks, from within the crowd of panicking civilians who now were running fearing for their own lives. One of the men ran at me with a sword. All in one movement, I ducked his swing and lifted his left arm with my right, exposing his side, just before putting my right palm on his side and flicked my wrist back. I purposely placed my hidden blade to pierce just under his heart, nearly sealing his fate. I grabbed his left ankle with my left hand and flipped him over my head. But to ensure his death, I kept the blade extended as he glided over my head. There was now a gash on his left side, going all the way down his body, and leg. He screamed in at agonizing volume. During the times of Altair Ibn La Ahad, possibly the father of all Assassins, a simple pierce of the heart would suffice. But now, we needed to send a message to our enemies. When I looked up, Violet had lowered their numbers by two more. She did them the pleasure of a swift end through decapitation. She was placing her dual swords back on her back, while the last of this pitiful attempt to silence me ran for his life. Violet lodged a throwing knife into each of his calves before he put any real distance between us. As we walked over to him, he struggled to get up. I stomped on each of the knives to make sure they were as deep in his leg as possible. He cringed at my actions, but aside from that, showed no pain. "Had he remained he could have made for a good assassin." Violet looked him over again. "Possibly." "And for our sign?" "The new one." I smirked at the thought. I grabbed the man by his hair, and yanked him upward, bending his back to a rather uncomfortable looking position. "Please don't kill me! Please! I'll leave the Red Moon, I'll lead a good life from here on out." I signified his plea with desolate response, "There is no intention to kill you." Before he could say anymore, I drew my favorite weapon. I put the tomahawk to his hairline. And swiped back. The skin atop his head was now in my hand, raw flesh in its place on his head. I took a bag from my pouch, and placed his scalp in it. I dropped the bag of skin next to him. The agony in his screams replaced likely matched the suffering in his eyes. "Now go. Tell your masters that the Assassin's Creed will never be silenced. Tell them how we slew your brothers. Show them how we've forever broken you. Then live. Live to tell others how you joined the Red Moon and how it made your life worthless so that they may chose a brighter path." Violet and I made our leave.

We neared the stables, after a silent walk back. As we turned the corner a familiar face stood out in the crowd. Dae, was talking to what looked like a few civilians. When she saw us, She began to yell as she ran over to us. "The Red Moons! Alex gone! Distractions and attacks!" I was confused; thankfully Violet spoke better panicked girl than I. "She's saying this meeting was a distraction! The Red Moons have taken Alex!" I didn't respond. Responding would have wasted more precious seconds. I sprinted the last few meters to my horse, and was gone. I didn't have time to wait on the girls. They knew were HQ was.

When I slammed through the door, it appeared everyone else had already returned. Men, and a few women lay dead everywhere. Justin walked over and began to speak, rather calmly. "So obviously there was an attack. Alex was taken. We left one alive and tried to get something out of him but he won't talk. He's over there." The chair he pointed to had a man tied up and slouched over. Likely brutally beaten. Attacking us at home was the most foolish mistake of his life. And his last. "I'm going to ask you this once you sad piece of living shit. Where is my brother? Comply and you'll live." "As if I'd do anything to help assassins. Maybe you should look in the mirror before you deem anyone else shit, you assassin scum." "Martrel, Justin, table. Lana, bring me the persuader." Within second a table was at my side. Another few seconds and Lana returned with the first metal tomahawk I had ever owned. Through the years it earned the title of the persuader because of it's effectiveness in times like these. I cut the rope that bound his arms, and Martrel held his free arm to keep it out of my way. He knew what was going to happen because he had seen it with every unwilling hostage. I set his Left hand on the table. "Because I'm a nice guy, this will be your last chance." He only spat his blood at my feet. The tomahawk in my hand was from 8 years ago. It was supremely dull, and had layers of rust. This caught his attention. "Wait! I changed my mind!" I had already offered. Twice. I brought down my fury through the tomahawk and his middle three fingers. Martrel released his other arm. The man screamed loud enough, that I'm sure anyone on the north edge of the city could faintly hear. The tears of sorrow poured down his face. "Are you ready to talk?" He obviously hadn't had enough. He used his good hand to give me the finger. I was in a very unforgiving mood. "Justin." The ginger walked over, and pulled on the man's right arm until it straightened out. I didn't have time for them to move the table again. This time I took off his arm from the elbow down. "Arizona! He's being taken to Arizona!" The words were so distorted from his crying that if it had been a normal day, I'd have felt sorry for him. But it happened not to be one of those days. "Take his legs, and leave him in the woods. Hopefully for his sake he'd die of blood loss before the wolves get to him." Martrel and Justin did as I instructed. They drew swords, and took his ability to walk. I whispered to Justin an extra set of instructions. "Attach some wolf bait to him. I want the wolves to get him." He nodded to show understanding. Violet and Dae ran in the door as he was being dragged out. "I'm leaving. Don't follow me." Jenna was the first to challenge my orders "You can't go by yourself, you'll be dead before you even find him." Dae backed her up before I could say anything "She's right. You see they had a three-part strategy. The Red Moons don't have that much power in our home city. This must be a huge cooperation between more than just one set. "Does it seem like I care?! That's my little brother! I don't care if the entire human population was with them!" I was sure that my eyes were at the lightest they could get. I'd never been more emotional in my entire life. "I hadn't noticed Justin and Martrel had come back until Justin spoke. "Don't a fucking idiot man. We should go together." "If it makes me an idiot to save my brother, then I'd rather be an idiot my whole life!" Jösh stepped in on the assault of my hasty choice. "Considering Alex is fully trained, it's obvious he'll slow them down by struggling. We should rest, get our energy back, and head out first thing tomorrow. It's much wiser." I was read to curse him out. Wait until morning. That was the dumbest thing I'd heard since time began. I opened my mouth, to blow up at him, but I was stopped by a sudden warmness. Lana was hugging me. "Don't leave Michael, wait here and we'll all get him back together." I looked around the room. There appeared to be a genuine concern on everyone's faces. I masked my emotion as best I could. "You guys are right. I was struck by the heat of the moment. We'll leave first thing tomorrow. Before dawn."

The master clock in my room stroke 11. A friend of mine had made it. I had asked it be timed 10 minutes fast, as an attempt to keep me ahead of schedule being the procrastinator I usually am. I was fully dressed, in my gear and my black and red robes. After the completion of my training, years ago, Master Connor had offered to me the robes he wore during his active days. I turned down the offer for two reasons. One, for the preserving of Assassin's history. Two, I preferred different colors. I had a tailor in town replicate them in my own colors. During the making our HQ, I made sure every floorboard was properly laid. The slightest creek would have woken everyone in the house. I slipped out of my window. I headed for the north gates of St. Louis, but chose to go by foot. The speed of a horse would have been useful, but horse hooves trudging through the snow would also have been too loud. I made a few stops through the city, rounding up a few extra poison darts and some books, stuffing my quiver totally full. Someone also had the honor of permanently loaning their horse to me from the stables. I suppose they would find out in the morning.

I approached the south gate, ready to begin my conquest. I noticed a dark figure leaned against the gates. I was hoping for their sake they didn't have a problem with my leaving. At that moment, I would have killed anyone who had a problem besides 8 specific people. Coming closer to the gate, the figure became less mysterious, and more memorable. I should have known Violet didn't trust my words earlier. "If you've come to talk me out of leaving alone, Violet, you're not gonna get anywhere with it. You guys need to stay and protect the City. It's probably another trap that they're expecting we'll all leave." "There's no talking to be done. Let's go." Part of me said no. Tell her to stay. But a bigger part of me said yes. So I suppose I liked her company. So although there was a battle within, I put up no resistance on the outside. After making a second horse our own to avoid sharing, we took our leave. The Red Moons made no attempt to cover their tracks in the snow, making it easy to follow. I could read multiple points where Alex made a clear struggle to get away. Jösh had been right, he was slowing them down. Once we had maxed out our energy, I suggested we stay at an inn and rest. I didn't want to sleep until I caught up to them. But even while furious I maintained partial logic. Staying awake for days on end, and fighting would have been a waste of my time, because I'd have easily been killed. The area was full of horses. After tying down our own we entered the rather large building. The clerk informed us there was only one room available so we'd have to share. Not that big of a deal. After unlocking the door, the first thing that struck me about the room, was that it had one bed, instead of the typical two. "Well then. To avoid the...awkwardness, I'll just sleep on the floor Vi. What bothered me through the night wasn't that it was uncomfortable, but that it was so cold. But I could manage.

Upon opening my eyes, I saw Violet, who was still sleeping. I'd seen Violet millions of times in my life. But I'd never seen her sleeping. It just never happened. The only difference was that her eyes were closed and she didn't have any makeup around them. It was just interesting. I didn't linger on the sleeping Violet for more than a few seconds. This inn was high standard because it was one of the only to have plumbing indoors without pumping. Although the hot water was very shifty during my shower. Having breakfast seemed like a good idea. We could use the energy it'd provide. I left the room and made for the dining room. Another sign of the higher standards of this inn was the free breakfast offer for those who stayed the night. Scanning the room for any problems before entering was something you learned to do as an assassin. Everything seemed alright. Wait. _Who's that talking to the clerk? _His back was turned to me. But I didn't need to see his face. His black and green robes stood out as soon as my eyes got to that section of the room. The sharp edged tonfa he would refer to as arm blades rested on either side. He was about 4 or 5 inches shorter than myself. He was from my city, and went by the name Martrel. I ducked, and rolled under the nearest table. _This is bad. He probably came looking for Violet. But I can't let him see me here, or he'll want to join. _Peaking up, I noticed he was no longer talking to the clerk. I maneuvered around the room, sure to stay out of sight using furniture and the crowd. I only stood once I was near the blonde man, who had the job of clerk this shift. "Excuse me, but could you tell me about the man wearing black, and green. A little shorter than me. Broad shoulders. Thick hair." The clerk's blue green eyes showed his questioning why such a specific description. But he got over it to speak. "Actually he was just looking for you and the other young lady you were with last night. I pointed him in the direction of your room. Is there something wrong?" "Nothing. He looked familiar but I was nervous to about approaching him without being sure." The employee easily bought the lie. "Glad to be of help." Picking up a dozen or so biscuits for the road, much to the distaste of other guest, rounding the corner, I bumped into a fully woken Violet. "Vi, we need to get going. No time for breakfast. Have a few biscuits." We were going to walk out of the front door, when a grab on my shoulder stopped me in my tracks. I turned, mind set to kill, and saw Martrel. "Almost missed you guys. Good thing my tracking is top notch." "What gives you any right to have followed us, when I told you to stay?" "If we're going to be assassins that fight for the freedom of the people, I'm going to use my freedom to chose to help my friend when he clearly needs it." What response could I have to that besides fine? "Well we could use the company. The long rides are kind of quiet." He smirked to see me defeated. He rarely beat me in word play, so I'm assuming he had to get help from Dae or Lana to come up with that. So it looked like everyone was doing a part in helping me anyway.

When we got further south, the snow vanished as the overall climate of the areas we travelled through got warmer. Having Martrel, our tracking expert, with us was extremely helpful. It was odd, but he could get faint scents from the winds. I never did want to learn that. I wasn't very interested in smelling my enemies from miles away. Instead of stopping in towns for meals, we gave up vegetables and went on an all meat diet for this trip. It wasn't a new experience, but still a little luring to hunt my food. And cooking over a fire was always a pleasure. Aside from knowing that my brother's life was in question, the rest of our travels to the deserts of Arizona were peaceful and undisturbed. No Red Moon checkpoints, or even Templars. Including areas where their powers were at the fullest. You could almost say that it felt like after a blink of the eye, the three of us were standing before a massive stronghold. "So the kid's in there." Martrel's pointless statement ruined the dramatic moment. It was pretty obvious. In the middle the desert. Civilization miles away. And of course the banner with a red colored moon hanging from the edge. Below the picture of the moon, were the symbols: 赤い月. Studying of other culture, something master Connor said was just as important as the body, I knew what they read. Martrel and I came to the same conclusion, speaking at the same time. "Red Moon. In Japanese." Violet looked between the two of us, but said nothing. I pulled my hood over my head. _Probably should have done that before I came up on the enemy fortress. _The grand doors before us look like we could have easily blown it away with some oil we kept, and a ma_tch. _But I found stealth to be a bit of a better idea. "Alright, let's use the hook blades." The hook blade is a hidden blade extender. It was self-explanatory. It was a hook, which gave extra reach for climbing. Developed during the time of Ezio Auditoré. It was also highly effective during combat, but I chose the simple dual hidden blades. I dug around in my pouches looking for mine. I felt kind of stupid when Martrel, and Violet already had theirs. Maybe I should get some kind of organization. It'd have to wait until tomorrow. The wall before us was about 20 feet high and very well made. So climbing it alone wouldn't have done any good. Putting my back to the wall and bending my knees, I nodded my head for Martrel to go. He got a bit of a run, put his foot in my hands, and jumped up, while I pushed up. He pushed out his hook blade, and caught the ledge. Releasing the force on his gauntlet, his blade pulled him the rest of the way up. I was always amazed at how much weight they could hold. He was over. "Vi." She gave a nod, and completed the task just as easily. Martrel leaned over the edge and let down his blade. It was an interesting set up. He used his knees to hang down to reach for me. Violet held on to his angle for extra security just in case he slipped or something. Setting back a few feet, I got my own run start, during my own jump, I pushed up off the wall as much as possible. I stretched out my hook, and barely locked Martrel's hook. We both released so I rose up another few feet. Here came the tricky part. Tightly gripping each other's wrist, we began a synchronized swing from left to right. When our swing had reached its max, at the height of the swing, we both let go. I gained enough air to use my hook blade to grab the ledge and climb over. It appeared that the Red Moon chose not to have any guards around the outer wall. Pretty unwise on the part of anyone, former assassins nonetheless. A second look revealed a problem with the entire place. There was nobody. Anywhere. The entire outside was empty. It was so confusing that Violet talked first, which was an almost never. "Uh, Martrel, are you sure this is the place?" "Yes I'm sure. All the tracks lead right here, and their scents are strong. No one split off from the group. They're probably inside celebrating their final win against our assassin team." I liked how he said final. Climbing down a ladder, we approached the center structure of the strong hold. Upon entering, there was a hallway, which appeared to go around the grand room. We went around through the hallway. The sheer multitude of voices resonating from inside said that the Red Moon really had gathered up allot of forces for this one. A peek quick look inside showed hundreds of men and women. It was likely a full plot between every remaining Red Moon agent in the country. They were all in such a frenzy that it was a casual walk for the three of us around back. The doorway to a stairwell was wide open. This was FAR too easy. What enemy would be so careless? But I wasn't going to object to any breaks. 2 flights of stairs down led into what look like the prison, mostly because of all the empty cages. Besides Alex's. "Hey kid." Looking up from the floor, his face grew into a big tooth filled smile. "It took you guys long enough heh. Oh and happy birthday bro." In the all that happening I had forgotten it was my 18th birthday. "Were you fed? Are you hungry? Were you questioned?" "Actually no. It seems like that just wanted me for bait. I was kept alive, and they didn't bother asking me question. I figured that being former assassins, they know all the secrets they would need." I took a very deep breath of relief. Martrel asked him about his gear. I had forgot about that myself. "Oh yeah. Get me outta here first." Picking the lock was an option. But smashing it was a faster one. Alex stepped on a cinderblock, and it sunk it, then pushed another into the wall. The wall shifted back, and then over, revealing a fully stocked armory. Alex grabbed all his weapons, and a few extras of things he found interesting. "Hey Michael, check these out." He threw me a pair of spiked brass knuckles. In the pouch they went. After taking our fill of their weapons, it was best time we make our leave. Going up the same stairs we came down, and around the same corner, everything remained. Approaching the exit, there was now a gate. I looked around. Chains had been raised. The chains linked up with the door. "Alright this must be coincidence. If we had been noticed, they'd have attacked already." A recognizable voice came was becoming louder, coming closer. "How foolish did you think we were? That we'd just so happened to be on break as you arrived to take your brother?" I hated hearing this voice again. Alex faintly remembered it too. "Michael who is this guy? Do we know him from somewhere?" "Yes Alexander, you two do know me. And I know you and your brother as well." "Where'd you learn that name?" It was the one secret I hid from even my brother.

"How could I forget the names I gave to you two, my sons?" Alex couldn't believe what he was hearing. I had come back to take him from our parent when he was 4. I never told him the truth about our family. I always told him I couldn't remember. I never knew our father had been involved with the Red Moons, let alone the leader it appeared. After I returned to take Alex, I stopped tracking my father. "Are you going to tell me what drove you to start this father?" "It was you Michael. When you ran from me after the death of your mother, I was hurt, crushed even. But when you returned two years later, to take away from me my last family, I was devastated. I always kept track of you. In the months and years that you that you ran from your past. I followed these assassins you called yourselves one of. And I followed you. I tracked these disgraced assassins and brought them into one organization. With the fall of the assassins, there'd be no reason for you not to return to me. "You still don't understand. I didn't leave because my mother died. I left because you're a heartless bastard. She didn't die; she killed herself to escape you. Her life was miserable with you. I wouldn't let you doom my brother to the same fate." "Michael you were always an intolerable brat! If you will not come to your senses then I don't want you to living bringing disgrace to my name. Bring him to me alive, kill the others." "The Red Moon's army, clearly over 200 all took slow steps. I suppose they expected to see fear in our faces. Had I been psychologically weaker, I'd have might have dawned the look they were searching for. Grabbing my tomahawk in the right, and my sword in the left, after sliding on the new brass knuckles, I was ready to throw down.

"Sorry we're late." I looked up to see Justin and everyone else standing on the wall. Him with a particularly confident smirk on his face. "Well the hell, don't any of you know what don't follow me means?" "I'll take that as our thank you." Jumping down, we went into our formation for highly outnumbered situations. It seemed safe to call this highly outnumbered. I caught a few of the murmurs that were coming from the ranks of the Red Moon. "I didn't know their whole team would be there." "Have you heard about the things this group has done?" "I've heard they've taken entire battalions. Why'd I sign up for this?" They were nervous about a group of 8 teenagers and a 10 year old. I could see why Justin had a confident grin. I took one up myself. My father looked frustrated. "Are you serious? There are 9 of them, more than 200 of us, and you tell me you're having second thoughts?! Complete my orders, bring me the boy, kill the rest, nothing has changed!" I pulled a pack of oil from a pouch, throwing it up above the front line of the still nervous foes. Violet threw a knife, and it spilled over them. Before she had let the knife go, Jenna had drawn an arrow, and Lana hit lit the tip on fire. I stepped to the side, being in the front of this attack pattern, to give her a clear shot. When the oil had hit, the arrow was flying. There was a small explosion, and about 20 or so were now on fire. Of course they panicked, and began to run spreading to fire to others the oil had missed. Shifting positions, Martrel threw a smoke bomb into the crowd. Without any type of command, our group took off, and each of us killed another two who were stunned by spoke bombs with hidden blades. That's where we split. Making our own solo kills. The tactic had been good to take down about 40 or 50 of them, and we had lots of other formations that would be effective, but it seemed like a good idea to let everyone blow of any steam this way. I didn't get very flashy with my own fighting. Countering and cutting vital areas would suffice. I had no interest in them so some had the fortune of sudden death, although most lost limbs and would be dead in a few hours. I'd occasionally glance around to see how we were doing. I saw a man with bandages wrapped around his head. I thought of the man whom I scalped last week. It appeared he hadn't learned anything from the encounter. As much as I would have preferred not to be here, making the most of it was going decently. The knuckles added an extra kick to my uppercut. And they made breaking necks all the more deadly. Much to my surprise, it was an easy fight. The Red Moon gathered here were very under skilled, and it was over shortly. I looked around; Jösh was securing the last killed for the day. His short brown hair was now a deep red from the blood. "Aye Jösh. Try fighting with your hood on." "Huh?" He got the point when he ran his hands through his hair. "Hey guys. Try to count up how many kills you got, and winner is exempt from training for a day when we return. Alex, don't lie." _I should have said that before the fight. They'd have been more enthusiastic and we'd have finished sooner. I really need to reevaluate my thinking. _I saw Dae walking around finishing off victims who were still fighting to cling to whatever life they still had in them. "Hey now, leave them to suffer." "That's a little harsh. But okay." _We've done worst._ "I'm going inside to have...words with my father. When I say don't follow, I'm serious this time."

I took my time walking into the center room. My father sat on the other end of the room in his throne. "I'm not 10 years old anymore father. I'm going to kill you today." "Is that so? Will that be the end of my story? Slain by my eldest son, with only my killer and my second child to carry on my name?" "Yes, that's how it's going to be." I closed the gap between us. There was nothing to be said. My knuckles were already on. I had contained all my emotions from the week. I was holding them in for this moment. I wasn't going to take any limbs or give a silent kill. I was going to beat the living hell out of him with my fist. I intended to break him myself. Hit after hit, for I don't know how long. I'm not sure when he died. I'm sure his entire skull was shattered. The only pleasure I did him, was burning his body after I was done. Not because I cared anything for him, but I was physically and mentally burning him away from my word. I took my leave. "Team. Let's leave." Alex still had questions I'm sure. But he was smart enough to hold them off.

The Journey home was much more bothersome. I had to answer every question everyone asked about my past. I owed Alex at least that. I had my own questions, which also received answers. It had been expected by everyone that I would try to leave. So the rest of the group chose Martrel and Violet to accompany me, while the others followed. Approaching the city, it was a lasting tradition that upon returning, we'd make the last mile of the journey to the gates by foot. The St. Louis assassins ended their journey at the sight of the gates. Something was off about our city. The livelihood was missing. You could normally hear children at play. You could see them. That wasn't all. That wasn't the American Flag that was waving. The flag had a red moon on it. I wasn't the only one who noticed. The upbeat talks of my group all switched to awe. My fears had come true. The Red Moon had taken our city while we were away. I couldn't understand how. They told me another group of assassins was nearby and had agreed to watch over our territory. Whatever the case, we didn't sit shocked for more than about 5 seconds. Although you could hear nothing, there was a connection between us, and we all were on the same page. Drawing weapons, our calm walk was now a run into battle. As we waged war to reclaim our city, I saw something in my team. Every breath we took, every step of the way, we fought for freedom.


End file.
